I wanted to build a natural weapon fighter and I'm looking at ways to get additional natural attacks on my base character, no rage powers / bloodline abilities that just give them temporarily.
Currently I'm looking at Tengu with the Beak and Claws for a total of 3 attacks or a Half Orc with Toothy and a 2 level dip in ranger (or anything else that grants ranger fighting styles if someone has a suggestion) for Aspect of the Beast (Claws).
I can't see any other way really of picking up something else. A slam attack somehow would be nice. The plan is to take this guy 2 ranger (if I go the Half Orc route which would open up Orc / Human feats) then just straight fighter with the Unarmed Fighter Archetype just because I like it and want a fun way of using it.
I can use Celestial Armour along with an Agile amulet of Mighty Fists or going the Slashing Grace route with Martial Versatility to have it apply to all my natural attacks (not sure if the Slashing Grace option actually works. It says it doesn't work when fighting with two weapons but natural attacks and weapons are two different things so it should unless I'm missing something).
Any advice on gaining extra natural attacks that I'm missing would be nice but quite honestly 3 is pretty nice too, especially when I'm going to be fighting with full BAB.
Edit : Oh yeah, I already have an idea in ind for a point buy and feats but feel free to leave suggestions. Perhaps I'll see something interesting that I missed. LV5 start, 20 Point Buy.
1) The easy way would be Synthesist, the Summoner archetype.
2) If you don't mind puzzling something together, consider Wereboar-kin / Ragebred from Blood of the Moon as your race. Spend an Extra Feature feat to gain both two hoof and one gore attack. It's basically permanent - since skinwalkers can shapechange at least 3 times per day and there is no duration limit. These three attacks are difficult to get, making them more valueable.
A single level of witch nets you a hair attack, another exotic slot. You can also get claws from witch, they are weak though. At least you can use Extra Hex to get both the hair and claws with a single level. Ranger 2 is a good alternative for claws, as you already found out.
There are some items to add attacks. Ultimate Equipment lists Ring of Rat Fangs (permanent bite 1d4 for 5k gold), Tentacle Cloak (2 tentacles 1d6 with grab for 14k gold, but only 1 minute per day) and Wyvern Cloak (tail sting 1d6 with poison for 78.6k, phew).
3) If that's not enough, you can go totally crazy with the Synergist, a Witch archetype. It allows you to meld your familiar in, at level 5 you get one of its natural weapons. And at level 14 you get all of them. That's usually not a big deal - familiar have only a few such attacks and often it's restricted to normal choices like claws, bite etc.. However, there are interesting familiars like the harbinger archon. It has three body blades - which don't take any normal slot, from my interpretation. And you can boost it further with the Evolved Familiar feat. Pick up a few tentacles (4 with generous ruling, because of 7 natural attacks for a high level eidolon) and don't forget pounce.
Breakdown:
Primary attacks
* gore (wereboar-kin)
* bite (Rat Fangs item)
* sting (Wyvern Cloak item)
* 3 body blades (harbinger familiar)
Secondary attacks
* hair (witch)
* 2 claws (witch / ranger)
* 2 hooves (wereboar-kin)
* up to 4 tentacles (Evolved Familiar)
Makes 15 attacks, and you get pounce. Flying pounce actually, since you get permanent flight from the harbinger. Haste gives another attack, and you have the choice to use a manufactured weapon instead of one / both claws. Don't forget natural weapons have drawbacks, like getting damage for using them or trouble with damage resistance. A two-handed reach weapon might be a good idea.
Feat costs are high: Extra Feature, Improved Familiar and Evolved Familiar (up to 4+1 times, don't forget pounce) means up to 7 of 10 feats will be used.
Keep in mind your GM might not interpret the rules in the same way, instead he might declare some ideas or everything illegal. And this build is not really suited for real play - the dice rolling lasts forever and you might frustrate the GM or fellow players by roflstomping any unprepared encounter. Rather pick some things you like and build a character you like...
If you pick up a race with wings, you could take Powerful Wings to get two wing buffet attacks (which are treated as a size category larger than you, to boot). Unfortunately this won't work with a tengu, since they can only gain wings as a temporary ability (which you've stated is something you're counting as off-limits).
- Kobolds can gain wings as a racial trait, but their -4 Str penalty means you'd need to waste a 17 stat roll on their Str to even qualify. They can also gain a tail and a bite attack (via feat and racial trait, respectively).
- Tieflings can pick up two claws and wings via racial traits (maw and claw, and vestigal wings, respectively). If your GM is willing to let you pick your own alternate abilities for fiendish heritage, you could also grab a bite attack. Alternately you could take a bite from maw and claw and claws from fiendish heritage.
- Aasimar can, upon GM approval, take talons as an alternate racial trait in place of the daylight spell (in a similar way to tieflings taking the fiendish heritage feat), and garuda-born are described as having wings. You could alternately grab wings and wing attacks via the angelic blood line of feats.
There's also a few options available if you're willing to do a class dip:
- Witch can gain the nails hex for two claw attacks, or take the white haired witch archetype for a hair attack.
- You can take the aspect of the beast feat if you're taking the natural weapons combat style for your ranger levels, and that'll grant you two claws.
- Oracle will get a bite attack from the hunger or wolfscarred face curses.
The option that'll probably give you the most natural attacks would be taking your current setup and trading two fighter levels out; one for witch and one for oracle, then applying it to a wereboar skinwalker. For the witch level you'd need white haired witch, and your oracle will be taking the wolfscarred face curse (choices for patron and mystery don't matter). You'll also be taking the aspect of the beast and extra feature feats, and the features you'll take are gore attack and hoof attack. This should give you a total of seven natural attacks: one gore, one bite, one hair slap, two claws, and two hooves.
The next step down would be tiefling, using your current progression plan. They would only need the witch dip, but must also take fiendish heritage and the maw and claw racial trait to gain claws and bite, and vestigal wings to get wings. They'll also need to take skill focus (fly) and powerful wings to get their wing slaps. This provides us with six attacks: one bite, one hair slap, two claws, and two wing slaps.
If you want to keep your current plan with no further dips, tiefling and wereboar skinwalker are pretty even I think. Both get five attacks, with tiefling getting bite, two claws, and two wing slaps, and wereboar getting gore, two hooves, and two claws. And in both cases, we're looking at two secondaries and three primaries.
